A New Dawn 160 An infestation ...

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"We have managed to hold the line here and here. This part is, wait a second." Getting a small bottle of water, he carefully leaked a few drops of water on a red dot that was on the left part of the map. Soon, it disappeared. "That nest had been taken care this morning. But I am certain that by the end of the week, it will reappear. What we do is just hold, without any chances of truly fighting back. Each time we burn a new nest, another one appears on another front. It's a nightmare."

"Why are they only attacking you here? Why can't they just leave the mountains and attack from the outside?" By starring at the map, Leilade could see tunnels clearly indicating that there was a way out for the spiders. There was not a lot of those, but after so many years, the queen must have at least dug a few other tunnels. Otherwise, it would be even easier than she first thought.

"Well, you see, it's the best part of our enemies. Strangely, they all hate each other as much as we hate them. The dragons love to feast on those spiders and the orcs in the West. The greenskin tribes will not back out of a fight, and even if they served as an alternative food for the two others, they are not easy prey. Because of this, the few times they amassed an army sufficient to overthrow one of the outposts outside of the Foundations of Iron, the drakes took care of them."

Laughing about that, she could see why the dwarf was happy. And why that engineer and, therefore, the king, asked her to deal with the spiders first. Even if the dragons, drakes, and wyverns living above them were the most powerful, their sizes prevented them from directly harming the habitations deep inside the mountains. On the other hand, those eight-legged monsters were permanently fighting the dwarves and the ratmen, causing casualties every day.

"As for digging new tunnels, do you believe we would let them do that? Many miners are constantly hearing the stone, trying to determine if someone is being dug. And even if their legs are as hard as iron, they are not appropriate to efficiently dig a tunnel. We always have enough time to dig one of our own, fill it with explosives, and make the two collapse."

Shaking his head, he focused the discussion on what was truly important. "But let's make this thing a past. If you are not afraid of dying, the best way you could help us would be to go there!" Using his index, he pointed at a red dot that did not seem to be larger or any different than the rest. In fact, it was not even the deepest.

"We have no idea where the Spider Queen is, or even if there is only one of them. For the ratmen, there should be at least two of them, as they had seen many changes of behavior in the past. Because of this, we also don't know where is the main nest. So, if you could get to that location and kill everything, it will help us greatly."

Carefully reading the map, she understood now why that place had been chosen. It was a bit hard to see in the huge network of tunnels, but this red dot represented a huge hub, crossing dozens of tunnels at once. Just by being here, she could impede the way the spiders traveled and was directly on the path of the monsters. Even if it seemed good enough for the dwarf, it did not meet the expectation of Leilade.

"Too slow, what is the point of me standing there doing nothing? No, I will just destroy all of them, nest after nest." Hearing such boastful words, the two dwarves were shocked. Already, just by reaching the place the commandant pointed and holding it, she would be swallowed by a sea of spiders. Only if she survived long enough will the monsters stop attacking with all their strength and only send many small groups to exhaust her.

In truth, when he was asking her to do that, he only wanted her to act as a bait for a moment, to divert many spiders from their nests, allowing his men to destroy all of those that were too close. Even if she retreated before reaching her target, as long as she stayed outside ten minutes it was already a victory for him. But now, she wanted to kill all of them? Not even in his dreams, he thought of it.

"I have memorized everything. If you could clear out those that are close to your position that would be quicker." Not even waiting for him to answer, she left without Glini, as the ranger did not felt that he should accompany her. Raising his head, he saw the other dwarf looking at him with a weird look. "Can she do that? By herself? What is she?"

Remembering what happened in the throne room, he wondered how much he should tell. But if their help was lacking, he worried that she would be mad once more. Fearing more the crazy soul than his own king, he divulged everything. "Sh-she killed two wyverns, beat down the Iron Beards and the King that was wearing the artifact of Ironskull. And it wasn't even hard."

Sitting on a chair, the commandant had his mouth wide open. He knew very well how were the defenses in the throne room, and how strong were the Iron Beards. They were the one responsible for protecting the king, yes, but they also were the ones that hunted the dragons. And succeeded. If the rangers often dealt the killing blow, without the protection of the Iron Beards, they wouldn't be able to do it.

"But why is she here? Is she from Pankow?" Nothing was free in this world. No one would do such a thing and expect nothing in return. But Glini could not inform him of something he also didn't know. "I don't know, but she definitely is not from Pankow. Just remember her name, Leilade Octavius. With a bit of luck, it will soon be associated with the end of the spiders."

"Leilade Octavius. Leilade." Murmuring that name, he finally got up. "You are right, if she is that powerful, why not benefit from that? You can stay here or accompany us, your choice." Staring at the now smiling commandant, the ranger felt his legs shivered. Still trying his best to not show his fear, he calmly refused the offer.

"Yes, it would be bad if you died like that. Take care then." Putting on his helmet, the officer left the room, feeling invigorated. Personally running, he reached some stairs that he climbed quickly. Under the baffled stare of the dwarf that was happily eating, he began to fill his lungs, before releasing everything in the huge horn in front of him.

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMP

At this point, even Leilade that was showing the letter to the guards to try to leave this place could hear it. Pointing at where she came from, she spoke to the ones preventing her from advancing. "That's the signal." However, they almost did not listen to her, as this was the emergency horn. One quickly opened the gate, to close it right after she was gone. Soon, everyone in the base was looking at the commandant.

"Dwarves, Ratmen, our ancestors are with us today. Like in the past, when we helped the ratmen and we both fought side by side against our enemy, we will do it once more today. Our former friends, the humans from Pankow, that suffered a terrible injustice, have arrived to exterminate those monsters that live in their strings. On their way, they have already killed multiple dragons, and even the King had witnessed it. And now, the spiders will feel their wrath."

Raising his axe as high as he could, he did not care about the lies he spouted. Between believing that an army was helping them and believing one single specter could make a difference, he would rather not let anyone doubt. "DEATH! DEATH TO THOSE MONSTERS!"

If he had time for a speech, Leilade was already covered by the green blood of those spiders. Until it was quickly dissolved by the shadows lurking under her body. At first, the tunnel she was floating in was extremely clean, besides the numerous marks of fighting. But there was nothing organic or any broken pieces of equipment laying on the ground. Only after reaching the first intersection with another tunnel did she began to see more and more remnants of the battles.

The first spider that met her immediately began to run as soon as it spotted Leilade, but it was too late. Looking at the monster, she wondered if this was all or something else was more dangerous. It was just a dwarf-sized spider, near the 1 meter, and completely black. In the dark environment, it would be hard to spot it quickly. Even now, it was still trying to throw poison at her. Not that it was really useful.

Toying a bit with the arachnoid, she could feel the connection between the Queen and her servant. But as soon as she manipulated it to know where her enemy was, she felt the body stiffening. Grasping a lifeless spider corpse, she still absorbed it nonetheless. Putting her hands in her hair, she did not need to turn to know what was happening.

Because the tunnels were quite small, she could easily obscure it entirely just by herself. Spreading from the edge of her hair, its white color provoked a huge contrast with the drops of darkness that was tangled in it. Behind her, a wall of shadows was completely sealing the opening, disintegrating everything in its path. Whether it was something belonging to the dwarves, the ratmen or the spiders, all became a part of her.

With the death of the first scout, many more approached Leilade, but to kill her this time. To put it bluntly, it was like many eggs smashing themselves on a rock. The only difference was the rock in question, as she was absorbing entirely everything the spiders had. But because it was not even slowing her down, she did not really mind.

Blocked by a spider web, she could see the numerous workers behind it creating more and more strings to reinforce it. They didn't even have the time to scream their pain before they were exterminated, their meager barrier has proven to be inefficient. Gazing at the webs and cocoons that were filling the cavern, she spotted a few bigger monsters. Those were human-sized, and looked far more deadly, with a few traces of green on their head. Otherwise, they were similar to their smaller counterpart.

But to her surprise, if the weakling charged at her, the few more impressive ones only began to run away at full speed. Chuckling at that sight, she did not forget to cast a black light in the entire cave. During one second, all the spiders still alive were blinded by it, before disappearing when the light was gone. In a blink of an eye, the previously lively nest had disappeared from the face of this planet.

Not following the retreating spiders, she calmly took the tunnel leading to the nearest nest. Thanks to the plan of the dwarves, she knew exactly where she needed to go, not having to waste time being lost for no reason. Without the Viscount to even told her if she was on the wrong path, it was fortunate that she had seen the plan. After destroying a few other breeding grounds, she noticed the small shenanigans of the Spider Queen.

It was not the first time she saw those large spiders leaving quickly by a tunnel. However, each time, they were taking a path that would lead her to go back on her footsteps. Or, it would dodge barely the cave she was looking for. But after realizing it was a failure, those monsters instead began to appear right in front of her, leading her directly to the nest. "Reverse psychology? Really?"

It had already been half of an hour, and the number of spiders that died by her hand couldn't be counted. The more she floated, the more she saw new tricks. Sometimes the right path was heavily guarded, sometimes it was not. In fact, without a precise location of those targets, she wouldn't have been confident in which tunnel to take. Until she used her magic to learn where to go, of course. But that was strangely amusing for Leilade, to see the desperate efforts of that Queen, trying to make her lost her way.

And when she finally arrived inside another cave used by the spiders as their home, she even began to laugh. No more small spiders. No more traps and petty tricks. On the floor, on the ceiling, on the walls. Everywhere, she could see those small traces of green on their black bodies. There had to be thousands, even more, dozens of thousands of monsters. But the one she was seeking was not in sight. Even now, her enemy had still not realized that the shadows behind her had only grown. And that it will grew even more now.

Chapter end